Kindred has been falsely branded under the classification of a genre novel (genre-bending or not), just because it happens to incorporate some seemingly fantastical ingredients as part of the wordsmith's brew, and in so doing, has belittled its rightful status as a masterstroke of modern art and educational significance. There is so much gravity in the historical depictions contained within these pages smeared with blood and tears, portrayed with a harrowing present-day voice which is so identifiable, that it is an earthshaking experience for anyone to leaf through with at least an ounce of pity in their heart. This is a staggering story of the realities of slavery and an eye-opening portrayal of a demoralizing human cruelty. Why there are so many contenders which take Kindred's place as required academic reading I'll never comprehend. ( )

his is one I've been meaning to read for a while, and boy am I glad I did. Butler uses sci-fi to explore the slave experience in the early 1800s. Dana is a young black woman living with her new white husband in 70's era Los Angeles. One day she gets dizzy and finds herself transported back to 1815 Maryland and finds the young son of a Plantation owner drowning. She saves him, but in doing so she is threatened with a gun and is transported back. She becomes linked to this boy. Whenever he's in trouble she goes back to help him. Whenever she's threatened in the past, she is sent home. Time hardly moves in LA, but years go by in Maryland. Each time she goes back it becomes harder and harder to reconcile the free and independent woman she is with the slave she needs to be. A fascinating read. ( )

I wanted to like it more. ( )

I love Octavia Butler. She is to-date the only author for whom I wept uncontrollably at her passing.

I'd been putting off Kindred for a while because I knew it would be a rough ride. Nearly every book by Butler is hard slog. Not because the author is lacking, but just the opposite. She is amazingly good at putting the reader at a different time and place and almost always that time and place is dangerous and extremely painful.

Every book I've read by her has found me often with my finger holding my place in the book while I stare into space examining my own beliefs and the implications of the story put before me.

Kindred uses a fantastic mechanism to tell a very real story. I like that Dana's time travel is never explained. I thought the character development was spot on. And it was simultaneously refreshing and horrifying to get such a different perspective on antebellum slavery than what most history books only gloss over. ( )

My 1st Octavia Butler. Heard about this book from Velshi's Banned Book Club. In 1976, Dana, a 26 year old black woman married to a white man in California finds herself pulled into the 1700's just in time to save a young boy from drowning. The boy Rufus, was the son of a slave owner. It was the beginning of many episodes of her being called to the past by the boy as he aged and needing her help to save him. They established a unique relationship despite being a black woman, she was still considered a slave and could be sold like the fate of many during this time. The book details many of the struggles and quite graphic on some of the ways slaves were punished on the plantation This was difficult at times to hear the way the people were treated and how hard of a life they lived. It reminded me of "Roots" the series on TV back in the 80's. A reminder of how it was for black people in the south, not so many years ago and definitely important lesson of our early history. ( )